WHY CAMPAIGNS NEED TO RETHINK HOW TO SECURE THEIR COMMUNICATIONS

Every campaign plan for this cycle has changed dramatically because of COVID. In-person activities are curtailed for the foreseeable future. In their place, candidates and groups are moving to virtual town halls, virtual rallies and relying more on texting, paid media and email.

While it’s exciting to see this pace of change unfold in real-time, we know the internet isn’t a bucolic scene from a Norman Rockwell painting. The campaigns will need to double their efforts to secure their communication apparatuses to mitigate the ability of nation-state actors, cybercriminals, and anyone else who might be tempted to meddle in our elections.

It should come as no surprise that while email is one of the most cost-effective tools for reaching the widest audience, it’s also rife with abuse.

To secure the 2020 election, campaigns need to adopt email authentication standards to thwart the ability of criminals and nation states to spoof their sending domains, deliver misinformation that imitates a legitimate campaign and prevent phishing attacks against voters.